Ouroboros Spine an echo of an echo

Easy had visited briefly with Valiant and put in her time hunting for the pack. She didn't want to be a burden while she was here, and she always felt strong and vigorous when she was pregnant. Besides, it was a beautiful territory, and she felt quite joyful and quite at peace while within its borders.

The blackbear found herself amongst a trio of ancient oak trees, looking out over a field of dying lavender. She was sad to have missed it in all its glory, but she knew it would come back again in the spring.

Feeling quite contemplative, Easy wandered among the brittle stalks, taking in the last of their fragrance.

Four months old and Chinook already moved with the same stride as her parents before her. Seaglass eyes had been made, leaving her puppy blues behind. They were bright and revealing. She followed her mother in the mornings and sat with her as she worked on skins which Rodyn and Valiant had brought from hunts. In the afternoons, she would watch her father hunt in the river and along the lake bed, prancinf around in the shallows further up stream, acceptingo draw them nearer to him. 

This day, she trailed southward past the healing dens and towards the three sisters, following a trail of someone completely different then she had before. A smell unfamiliar. In Chinook's thoughts, if she were in her home, she must be pack and so she should come to know the other. 

Slipping nearer to the great oaks, Chinook seeks the woman wandering among the lavender fields and woofs gently into her direction. Hello. A small, shy greeting, added with a wave of her tail behind her.

She did not wander long before a curious youth found her. Easy barked back, her tail wheeling as the young one approached. Without really knowing what she looked like, Easy thought that the white-splashed coat of the youth matched rather nicely with the silver-splotched coat that adorned her own body. The likeness, however, was one she knew to be coincidence rather than blood. Valiant had confirmed that (other than Ludo) there were no new children of their line for her to meet.

"Hello," she replied, her voice still warm. This pack was a kind of family to her own, and this was a child of that family. "My name is Easy. What's yours?" she asked the girl.

She lowered herself to her belly in the brittle grass, encouraging the child closer.

The woman was pretty. Molted in black and silver color. Her eyes deep of orange. She smelt like fresh rainfall. As she waved her tail and lowered herself into a lay in the dying lavender blades, it encouraged Chinook to move in closer. 

I'm Chinook Nuiruk. She introduced properly with low voice as she eased herself into a sit in front of the older woman. 

You smell like Valiant. Her nose twitched. Friend?

Nuiruk — that confirmed this child's lineage, at least. She was pleased to meet a descendant of Kukutux, and a relative of the lost Vaïre.

"I suppose he is my friend, too," she replied, amused by this question. "But first he is my nephew. And, as his parents are lost to him, I am grandmother to his children."

Not a very present one, but at least she still lived.

"Is he a friend of yours?" she asked, curious about her nephew's relationship with the rest of the pack. It was clear he'd made deep bonds with Raindrop, but what of this child?

That is sad, about his parents... She murmurs. My parents-parents are gone too. I did not get to meet them. It is very good you are here. Spoken softly still yet with an openness and a hrmm on her lips. Her parents spoke of them so often though, it almost seemed as though she knew them in some way or another, but she imagined it was not quite the same. 

Oh ahh ...no, not yet at least. She said with a shy smile. I always see him though, coming and going. He is very busy, and very big! And dad says he is preparing for new puppies for me and Ahna to meet.

Easy smile, charmed by the child. "It is sad. But there is much sadness in life. It is as important to feel and experience as joy." One was easier to endure than the other. In opposites, one was rather easier to find than the other, too.

She gave an encouraging nod. "That he is! Are you excited to see new little faces in your village?" She guessed that Chinook would soon have her own little siblings to play with, but that Valiant and Raindrop's children would be excellent practice. "I will have to tell him to be sure to introduce you — and to come say hello to you as well!"

She tilted her head. "Is Ahna your sister?" she asked.